Since Forever
by OmenProphecy
Summary: Rhea Snape was Severus Snape's Gryffindor twin. Both were great friends with Lily Evans before they even reached Hogwarts, but Lily has loved Rhea for years. As Lily and Rhea weave through the hazards of attending fourth year with the Marauders, will Rhea ever open her eyes? Warning: femslash, OC, AU
1. Chapter I

**This is a femslash fic(my first), an AU fic, AND an OC fic, although I'm sure you knew that if you read the description before you clicked on this story. I gave you a warning before you even start reading, so if you're here just to flame about that, you're wasting your time. Just wanted to get that out there. Please enjoy reading. I'm up for comments, questions, anything, whether in PM or review. **

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine, and, in fact belongs to J.K. Rowling, the genius. Everything else is a product of my very own imagination. This is the first and last time I will say this on this particular story.**

**Thank you.**

_**I**_

It was a rather overcast morning on the day everything started. I specifically remember this from the many, many times I looked up at the ceiling in the Great Hall, anxiously urging away any rain.

"Do you think it'll rain out the match today?" I asked for the umpteen time that morning.

Lily elbowed me lightly, grinning. "You're really excited about this, aren't you?"

I giggled a bit. "Of course I am!"

I, Rhea Snape, had a very good reason to be. This was the first inter-House Quidditch match I'd ever played in, the third of the year. My nerves were going crazy, but I was much too proud to let anyone know that.

Well, except for Lily, of course. As my best friend since forever, she knew me well enough to know when and what I was covering up, and also had the good grace not to out me in front of everyone.

"Don't worry," she said quietly. "I'll be right there in the stands to cheer you on."

That did raise my spirits, and my excitement level.

It's been a joke between the two of us for a long time that she's my lucky charm. If she's watching whatever I'm doing, I've always succeeded. The exception was History of Magic. No amount of luck could make me pass _that_ class.

Walter Bell, Gryffindor Quidditch captain, stood up and called his team. I rose to follow them, my heart beating a mile a minute. Lily gave me a reassuring smile.

James Potter tapped on the top of my head, an annoying habit of his when it came to me. "What?" I asked, perhaps more sharply than I'd meant to.

"Merlin, woman, calm yourself. How do you feel? You think you're up to this?"

What could I do but say yes?

"Good. Stephans and Pollymer are all right Chasers, but there's room for a _lot_ of improvement. If you're playing up to your usual, you'll probably be scoring most of the points." James smiled at her. She got the message, clear as day: _Don't you dare let us down._

As if I didn't already know about the other Chasers. Our only chance was to catch the Snitch before Hufflepuff did, because our hard-working opponents had more than one decent Chaser.

At least we had a great Seeker. Otherwise, I don't know if I would've been brave enough to show my face at the match.

We came out onto the field, brooms in our hands and mentally steeling ourselves for defeat. Hufflepuff's team came out a moment later. Our captains shook hands with none of the usual animosity.

Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had a sort of alliance, as well as with Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw had a truce with Slytherin, but neither of the other two Houses even came close. Of course, there were the odd friendships that sprang up between a Slytherin and someone from another House, but it was rare for them to last for more than a few years.

Lily's friendship with my brother was one such example. They were still friends, but they'd cooled off quite a bit. Where once they were almost as close as Lily and I were, Severus didn't make the greatest choices in his other friends, and Lily began pushing him away.

Lily waved at me from the stands, her Gryffindor attire flashing gold and red. I grinned up at her and waved back. James turned to see who I was looking at and met the vivid green eyes of his long-time fancy. He beamed like an idiot.

Madame Hooch gave us the same speech she always gave, and then blew the whistle.

My muscles were incredibly tense as I kicked off from the ground.

A Hufflepuff Chaser got to the Quaffle first. Both Stephans and Pollymer gave chase, but I knew better. He had too much of a head start.

I was right. The Chaser(Jackson, I learned from the commentary) threw the ball into the left hoop. He scored, starting the game off with 10-0 for Hufflepuff.

The game was on.

In the end, Gryffindor did win, but it was only because of James. He closed his hands around the Snitch only a second before his opponent. The score was 270-180 for Gryffindor.

Almost as soon as my shoes touched the ground, Lily was at my side, giving me a bear hug. We hopped around for a moment, grinning so wide I thought my face would split in half.

That was the precise moment when Sirius Black decided to appear.

"Rhea?" he asked.

I looked up, my smile fading a bit. "What d'you need?"

He looked pointedly at Lily, but she didn't move an inch. "Can we talk for a second? In private?" he said, glaring at my best friend.

"Spit it out, Black, this is as private as you're going to get." I was annoyed at how he thought he could order Lily around, but I'd also already forgiven him. I'd fancied the boy since third year.

Sirius sighed. "Fine." He pouted a bit. "Will you go with me to the Christmas Dance?"

Lily and I exchanged a glance. She nodded almost imperceptibly, and I turned back to Sirius. "Sure, Black."

He punched the air walking away.

Lily dragged me back upstairs to our dormitory, and within the hour found ourselves lying on our stomachs on my bed, laughing.

"I'm so proud of you!" Lily exclaimed. "Your first match, and you pulled it off with seventy points of your own!"

"Yeah," I said with a laugh. Then I sat upright. It was time to stop avoiding the topic she'd really pulled me up here to talk about. "Are you okay with Sirius and I..." I trailed off. My hand rested inches away from her head as she laid it down. Her hair settled over my fingers.

Lily closed her eyes for a moment. "I am. It's just that he's friends with James, and I really don't want to go down that road."

I rolled over onto my back. I had the distinct feeling that I was missing something, that there was something wrong with what Lily had just said.

Then it hit me: it was that particular tone she got when she was lying.

My eyes flashed to Lily. "Oh, no. You don't fancy Sirius, do you?"

She started laughing then, from deep in her belly. She laughed long and hard. Finally, wiping moisture from her eyes, she said, "No, hon. No way in hell."

I let out a breath. "That's good. You know I'd drop him in an instant if you weren't okay with it, or if you liked him, or-"

Lily grabbed my hand and squeezed. "I'd do the same for you."

A thought occurred to me then. The color drained out of my face.

"Rhea, are you all right? What's the matter?"

"Lily," I said slowly. "I don't know how to dance."

~O~

**Well, how was it? This isn't a one-shot, I plan on this having quite a few chapters. Let's see if I can make it to ten. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, anything. I am open to criticism, though I don't expect too much this early on. The next chapter will be out soon.**

**Thank you!**

**Annie**


	2. Chapter II

**This is the second chapter. Yay! Have fun reading!**

_**II**_

Lily giggled at my expression. "You don't know how to dance? Really?"

I shook my head wildly, my hair swishing. "And I take it you do?"

"Of course!"

I pouted for a moment. "Mum never taught us," I mumbled. Eileen Prince was out at work most of the time. She'd never had enough time to teach her children how to dance.

"I'll teach you!" Lily said suddenly.

I jumped a bit. "Really? You would do that?"

"Yeah, it's easy. We can make lessons every Saturday."

"That sounds great! Thank you so much, Lily!"

The door opened, and in came Mary McDonald. Lily gave her a slight glare, but it disappeared quickly and was replaced with a smile.

"Hey, Mary," I greeted.

"Hi, Rhea. Great job in the match this afternoon."

"Thank you."

Lily went back to her own bed and got under the covers. I looked at my watch. It was nearly ten, rather early for me, but the excitement of the day left me feeling exhausted. It didn't take long for me to slip into the realm of sleep.

~O~

I was awoken by a pillow smashing into my face. My eyes opened almost involuntarily, and I saw Carla Fitch standing over me.

"Every morning?" I groaned. "Is that really necessary?"

"Sure, whatever," she said dismissively, her teeth gleaming.

Carla was the fourth girl to live in the dorm with us, after Lily, Mary, and I. We had a fifth roommate, Henna Strauss, but she didn't sleep in here with us too often. She frequently stayed with her boyfriend, Amos Diggory, in Hufflepuff. This was one such night.

I rolled out of bed, rubbing my eyes. I was glad I had roommates willing to wake me up, because I would never be able to do it on my own.

Lily came out of the bathroom, toothbrush in her mouth and with wet hair. When she saw me she took out the toothbrush for a second. "How'd you sleep?" she asked. She did this every morning; it was pretty sweet of her. I could tell by her tone that she cared about the answer.

"I dropped off pretty early," I replied with a yawn. "I only just now got woken up."

She nodded and stuck the toothbrush back in her mouth, going back to the bathroom to finish the job.

I got ready fairly quickly. I followed Lily down to breakfast, giggling and chatting like normal girls. We were determined to keep our childhood for as long as possible, because we both knew the war was almost upon us, and we would never get another chance to be children.

It was Thursday, so we fell upon the pancakes with strawberry syrup. We only barely stopped to act lady-like.

Once we were finished, we hurried to get to Charms. Lily was a genius at it, and I wasn't too far behind her. I had to admit that hers was a natural talent.

Professor Flitwick greeted us when we entered. Lily and I were particular favorites of his, mainly because we kept the chaos in the room down. The Marauders shared this class- and nearly every class- with us, and Lily and I were both prepared to stop any pranks. For this reason, he always made sure Lily and I sat nearby, which had the drawback of James getting slapped right after class for asking her out. _Again._

Today was no exception. We were learning the Summoning Charm, and James took this golden opportunity to Summon a bouquet of lilies and ask Lily out. She said no, as was her custom, and did indeed slap him once we exited the classroom.

Sirius didn't even bother saying hello to me, or goodbye when he left. Lily gave me a quick hug when she noticed my expression. "Are you sure-?" she asked.

"Yes," I said gloomily.

We had Quidditch practice after classes were over for the day. I put on my gear and grabbed my broom. Lily watched nearly every practice I attended, and I performed better for it. We headed down to the pitch together, this time with little conversation.

"Evans," James greeted. "Rhea."

Lily rolled her eyes and went up into the stands.

I kicked off from the ground and practiced passing maneuvers with my fellow Chasers. They only caught the Quaffle about half the time. Their long-distance accuracy was horrid, they had to be right up close to the hoops. By the end of the three hours I was about ready to cry. How on earth would we be ready for the match with Slytherin?

I landed smoothly and got off the broom, swearing under my breath. Lily and I walked back to the dorm, where I hopped into the steaming shower and changed into pajamas. Lily was waiting on her bed, sitting Indian-style with a package in her lap.

"What's that?" I asked, brushing out my hair. I hit several large snarls, and I pulled the brush roughly through them.

"Here, let me do that," she said. I sat in front of her and handed her the brush. She began running it through my hair painlessly. "I don't know yet," she continued, still brushing. "It says it's from Anonymous."

"Oh," I said skeptically.

Lily was silent for a moment. Finally, she said, "I was waiting for you to come out so we could open it together. It says your name, too."

That got my attention. "Wait, what?" I grabbed the package and looked at the address.

_L. Evans & R. Snape  
C/O A. Dumbledore  
Gryffindor girl's dormitory, 5th landing_

"Let's open it," I said after a moment. Lily agreed.

I cut a line through the tape on the top and pulled out the flaps.

Inside there was a book. I read aloud the title: "_Useful Spells and Potions for Witches and Wizards._"_  
_

"What are you waiting for?" Lily exclaimed. "Open it!"

I turned to a random page and saw a detailed description of a spell for duplicating yourself.

Lily and I shared a grin. What a great gift.

~O~

**All right, let's get this straight: this is going to be a rather fast-paced story, mostly because that way I'm more likely to finish it before I lose interest. The grounds will be set in the next chapter, and then time is going to go by pretty fast. The rating might need to be bumped up to an M, but I'm not sure. We'll see how it goes.**

**Thank you.**

**Annie**


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